The present invention relates generally to document storage and retrieval apparatus and, in a preferred embodiment thereof, more particularly provides a records management kit which may be used to easily and rapidly construct and maintain a file folder-based document filing and retrieval system for home or business use.
The home or business filing, in conventional manila file folders or the like, of large numbers of unrelated documents often creates annoying and sometimes perplexing problems for the file user. Such problems representatively include difficulties in initially setting up the system, establishing usable file categories which are neither too broad nor too narrow, deciding which of the various filing categories to place a received document in, finding and retrieving a filed document, and expanding the initially created system to meet changing filing requirements.
Additionally, the filing system, when initially created and thereafter, is often unavoidably imbued with the personal organizational and operational preferences of the person which initially created it.
Assuming that the file creator is reasonably efficient and organized, the filing system may well operate satisfactorily --as long as the file creator remains primarily responsible for document filing and retrieval activities. However, as is well known, if another person unfamiliar with the system must use it, entry into and retrieval from the previously "personalized" system may be quite difficult for some time.
Various pre-organized filing systems of the file folder type have been previously proposed to provide at least some degree of standardization to document filing and retrieval. One common example, which is produced in several variations, is the "expandable folder" type of document filing apparatus which comprises an expandable pouch structure which is divided into a series of file pockets by pre-labeled divider panels.
This type of conventional document filing structure, while ostensibly providing at least a degree of organizational standardization, has a variety of well-known limitations and disadvantages. For example, its document containment volume is limited. Accordingly, it can rapidly become unusable and obsolete as the number of documents to be filed exceeds a certain level. Additionally, the pre-printed filing categories tend to be overly broad, resulting in user confusion over where to file a given document and where to find a previously filed document. Moreover, this category breadth, which allows an original file system user sometimes rather broad latitude in where in the structure to put a given document, often leads to subsequent user confusion.
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide records management apparatus for constructing and maintaining a file folder-based document filing and retrieval system that substantially reduces or eliminates the above-mentioned and other problems, limitations and disadvantages typically associated with conventional filing apparatus such as the type representatively described above.